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August 05, 2009

14 or so hours 'til my new HD TiVo goes online!

Back when I was setting up the utilities for our new home in Portland, I was confronted with the cable company vs. phone company dilemma. I opted for the cable company (Comcast) partly because I was concerned about having satellite TV in a location where it rains so much. And Comcast's triple-bundle deal was pretty good.

However, I was prepared to abandon my beloved TiVo because the two Series 2 machines that I have aren't HD compatible, and Comcast threw in free use of an HD DVR for 6 months.

WIthin a couple of days of using the cable DVR, though, I couldn't stand it. It's not just that we're used to the comforting doo-doo-doo sound that TiVo makes when you fast-forward; it's that TiVo's interface is technologically superior in just about every way you can imagine. When you super fast-forward and then hit play, TiVo is smart enough to rewind a few seconds back. That way, when you see your show start again (after speeding through commercials), the auto-rewind gets you to the right spot without forcing you to rewind manually. Not so with the Comcast DVR.

And then when it comes to scheduling recordings . . . . I can't believe how stupid the cable DVR is. Although I selected the option of recording only first run and not repeats, it somehow gets confused by cable network shows like "Burn Notice." I ended up having to delete manually a bunch of repeat episodes -- ones that I'd watched within the last 30 days(!).

So, I called up TiVo, found out that I was eligible to upgrade my dual-tuner Series 2 TiVo and get a new HD TiVo for $100 off. Cool deal! It arrived today, and the Comcast tech is scheduled to come tomorrow to put in the cable smart cards, and then I will be reunited with my beloved TiVo!